A volunteer from the island of Taiwan at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Photo: VCG

 

The island of Taiwan has been an integral part of China's territory since ancient times. Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a shared aspiration for all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. 

Looking back at the development of cross-Straits relations over the last decade,the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always been dedicated to working for the wellbeing of the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Under its leadership, people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have set out on a path of peaceful development and made many breakthroughs in improving cross-Straits relations, Tang Yonghong, deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Tang noted that the mainland remains calm and patient in promoting peaceful reunification despite that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities adopted a separatist stance, refusing to recognize the one-China principle, and distorting and denying the 1992 Consensus, even colluding with external forces in successive provocative actions designed to divide the country.

"This confidence comes from the unbreakable economic, cultural, and social ties and irreversible integration between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and the continually improving comprehensive strength and international influence of the mainland, from which the people enjoy practical benefits, forming a public opinion base of 1.4 billion people supporting peaceful reunification," Tang said.

At a meeting marking the 110th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911 on October 9, 2021, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping said that the Taiwan question arose out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation, and it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

National reunification by peaceful means best serves the interests of the Chinese nation as a whole, including compatriots in Taiwan, Xi noted.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC and the Chinese government have facilitated dialogue, consultations, and in-depth exchanges of views on cross-Straits relations and the future of the Chinese nation with relevant political parties, organizations, and individuals on the island of Taiwan. While countering interference and obstruction from separatist forces, the CPC and the Chinese government have called on the people from Taiwan to promote effective and in-depth cooperation and people-to-people exchanges in various fields across the Straits. 

Data show that the trade across the Straits was $160.03 billion in 2011 and by 2021 it had doubled to $328.34 billion. In 2011, businessmen from Taiwan invested in 85,772 projects on the mainland, and by the end of 2021, the total number of projects reached 124,142, with an increase of 44.7 percent in 10 years.

In 2011, there were 7.1 million cross-strait passenger trips, of which 5.26 million were made by people from Taiwan to the mainland; in 2019, about 9 million visits were made between the two sides, with more than 6 million visits from Taiwan to the mainland.

Despite provocations from the DPP and outside forces, Tang pointed out that the historical trend of the reunification cannot be changed by any force's obstruction or destruction, noting that the mainland is growing more powerful in striking against Taiwan secessionism and foreign interference, with a firmer will and determination to achieve national reunification. 

The island of Taiwan belongs to all Chinese people, including the 23 million compatriots from Taiwan,and any attempt by separatist forces to prevent reunification is bound to fail, Tang said. 

At present, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process. The time, momentum and righteousness of reunification are on the side of the mainland, he noted.